Because we bought our flights in April, it seemed like this trip was never really going to happen. It felt to far away and our summer was so busy, we knew that it was going to take forever for it to happen… But now it has come and gone, but we wouldn’t have traded that week for anything. We were so happy to go with our friends and to teach them some new games for Stephanie to get addicted too! It all started late on a Monday night when we pulled up to Taylor’s parents house in Utah. We all talked about everything we packed, made sure that we wouldn’t be over the limit and made adjustments to the way we packed our bags and the girls painted their toes. The next morning started off early with a 6 AM flight out of Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. There we had to wait awhile due to plane repairs. The idea of having our plane repaired right before we were supposed to be flying over the ocean had me in a little of a panic, but everything went smoothly. We welcomed the hot, muggy Hawaiian air with open arms. We were ready to begin our little summer vacation!! Our first full day in Hawaii, we took off for Kaanapali beach because on our honeymoon we fell in love with that particular beach. The sand was silky soft and the water was beautiful. We took out boogie boards and were riding them into the sand, taking turns seeing how far we could get up the shore. I took a turn, strapped the GoPro on my head and was ready for a wave. And then that wave got bigger and bigger. I had a mini panic attack but thought everything would be OK. That wave took me out… I was slammed to the ground, boogie board hit me in the face, particularly my eye, and I finally popped up. But what I saw when I came up was Logan’s panicked face… “WHERE’S THE GOPRO?!” Crap. When the boogie board hit my eye, it took the GoPro off with it. I took off running down the beach to see if it had come down the shore at all, but no luck. I started racing back to watch Logan dive down and come back up empty-handed. He was scanning the water again, reached down, and came up with the camera. Thank heavens! Most of our trip we were at the beach, being beach bums and eating real Hawaiian shaved ice. Nothing compares to it here! It’s the best.. In our 8 days on the island between the 4 of us, we ate 17 of them… No judging! On our last full day in Hawaii we went snorkeling! We took a little boat over to Lanai to have some really good views to snorkel in, but because a hurricane had gone through right before we got to Hawaii, the waves were big and we only stayed there for about 20 minutes. They took us over to Maui to finish up snorkeling, in more calm, clear water.  I was trying to sneak up on Logan to tickle his sides, but when I popped up out of the water, he told me had just gotten stung. As he swam over to the guide, a woman nearby said she had also gotten stung. After a guide realized that multiple people were being stung by some little blue things, we were supposed to get on the boat. Portuguese Man O’War were out in the ocean swimming with us and wrapping themselves around people stinging them. Stephanie and I just had little stings, while Taylor and Logan had pretty good ones. That made for quite the adventure!! During our time at the condo, we spent lots of time swimming in the pool. We even made “friends” with a tenant who thought the way we did the surfboard trick (Logan goes to the bottom and I stand on him and he moves through the water) in the pool was amazing. Every day we were down there, he came and asked us to do the trick over and over again. It was a little weird and creepy with some of the things he said, but when in Hawaii right? Our trip was perfect, minus the whole Portuguese Man O’War thing. We filled our time with memories and lots of pictures. We took plenty of iPhone pictures and regular images, so enjoy a good mix of them all! Part two from our trip (including the portraits we took on the beach) will be coming next week! If you want to see more from our trip check out our #mandlinmaui and #mauiorbust2k15

Early morning flights means sleeping wherever you can… That also means sleeping lines 🙂

Some of our snow cones
My favorite cheese faceWe were eaten alive on this hike

The red blotchy spot is the sting on his face and how we feel about being stung